Chapter
10 – School Parent Tutor Report/Case
Studies
Case Study 4: McCallum's Hill Public
School
Introduction:
McCallum's
Hill Public School is a culturally
diverse school at t the junction of
five suburbs: Lakemba, Roselands,
Beverly Hills, Belmore and Kingsgrove.
Enrolments have remained steady over
the last three years. The 2001 enrolment
is 479, comprising 244 girls and 235
boys. The students come from 34 different
backgrounds providing the school with
a vibrance and depth of diversity
which enriches the experiences of
us all. McCallums's Hill has 70% non
English Speaking Background students.
Student mobility remains at between
26 and 27%. The area has high levels
of rented accommodation and families
in our area tend to save for a home
and then relocate.
There are 17 roll classes. The STLD
allocation is 3 days per week. Fourteen
students with disabilities are integrated
into mainstream classes. ESL allocation
is two full time and two days part
time.
Specific
Nature of the Program - Starting Point:
The
targeted group of low progress readers
were the Year 4 students who scored
a Band 1 in the BST in 2000. These
students in Year 4 were receiving
additional support with their literacy
needs from the STLD 3 times a week
for a total of 3 hours per week. The
introduction of "Parents As Tutors"
meant that those students were receiving
additional individual attention with
their literacy learning through an
individual program designed by the
STLD and based on the students individual
literacy needs in reading. The individual
program was highly structured and
simple to implement by the parent
tutor. The program required the student
to read sight words, complete related
activities to sight words, practice
oral reading with a variety of oral
reading fluency passages, answer some
comprehension questions, write some
essential spelling words and read
to the tutor a text or book for practice.
The program was designed to develop
rapport with the tutor and give the
student success and the desire to
participate with enthusiasm for success.
top
The
actual process of gaining parents
to participate in the program was
very challenging and time consuming.
The STLD would walk the playground
each afternoon for three weeks and
in a casual manner talk to anyone
who would listen about the program
and then ask them if they were available
to help out with the project. The
STLD wrote personal letters and rang
the parents of the targeted Year 4
students to seek their support in
helping their child. Two parents out
of 1 0 were willing to help their
child. The program would operate 4
times a week for half an hour each
session. Each targeted student was
to receive an additional half hour
individual literacy support four times
a week. The challenge was to have
enough parents to provide each student
with half an hour additional support
a day.
Step by Step Implementation Procedure
- Time tabling Changes:
The
structure of school's timetable was
altered to make Yr 3-6 reading groups
time to be between 9-10am so parents
who dropped off their children could
start their role as tutors at 9am.
Previously, the time allocated for
Yr 3-6 reading groups was at 11.20
- 12.20pm making it very difficult
to get parents to help as tutors.
Term
2 Yr 3-6 Reading groups started at
9am. The STLD had a targeted group
of students who would be the students
receiving additional literacy support
from the tutors. These students were
identified as scoring Band 1 in literacy
with BST results.
Unforeseen
problems and how they were dealt with:
Allocate
sufficient funds to purchase appropriate
resources to enable the program to
be successful. Time tabling to support
a target group, or group(s) within
literacy block.
Ongoing collection of baseline date
throughout each term in order to state
achieved outcomes.
